Shows on Web Have Been More Miss Than Hit
Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg, actor-producer Ashton Kutcher and reality TV impresario Mark Burnett are just a few of the Hollywood heavyweights trying to develop new programs for the Web.
Yet for all their success in television and movies, they are grappling with a fundamental question: What defines a hit on the Internet?
"There are as many answers to that question as people you ask it to," said Blair Westlake, a former TV executive who is Microsoft Corp.'s liaison to the entertainment industry.
That confusion became all the more apparent Thursday when Yahoo Inc., an early favorite to navigate the complex 21st century media landscape, said it would scale back efforts to create original entertainment offerings. The decision was a turnaround for Lloyd Braun, the former ABC television executive hired in 2004 to run the company's Santa Monica-based Yahoo Media Group.
For months, Braun spread the word that he wanted to capture mass audiences by producing new Web programming to be seen only on Yahoo. With Thursday's shift, Braun acknowledged that his views about what it took to succeed online had changed.
"Our focus is not doing a string of one-off hits like the TV model," said Yahoo spokeswoman Joanna Stevens, who added that the company would instead highlight content created by its millions of users as well as serve as an online distributor for traditional media companies.
Braun declined to comment.
Yahoo will still create the occasional original program, Stevens said. But the company has put the brakes on big-ticket projects such as "The Runner," a onetime TV show concept Braun brought with him from ABC, and "Treasure Hunt," an online game show developed with Spielberg's production company, until it can figure out how to make money on such deals.
"Unless show business stops being a business, then
As online video matures, the Internet has become a hip place to launch shows and squeeze more money out of old ones. TV networks, Internet portals and television producers chasing ad dollars online are developing reality shows, comedies and scripted dramas specifically for the new medium.
For the big Internet companies, their "hits" have been e-mail, Web search, instant messaging and other services that keep people coming back regularly, said advertising executive Jeff Lanctot. Now, they are trying to build even bigger audiences with video programming.
